This is a very special team of people that have all been with this initiative from the day that they were hired, so im fortunate to present with them today. In terms of our purpose for today, so it is to review the journey of the African American leadership initiative, to provide context on our current projects and programs, to look ahead to what they expect for 20192020, and then, to share some of my reflections on the future of sfusd work in support of African American students. And with that, im going to turn it over to letitia irving, our Program Coordinator for the apac. I want to walk you through the journey, and we are proud of the milestones listed here. In 201516, special assistant was passed, our beloved Landon Dickey. In 2016 and 17, African American student achievement became an express priority of the superintendents leadership team. Our village roundtable, black mens program and Horizon Program also launched. In 2017, launched a variety of programs, and all of the partnerships up there, among many others were established. In 2018, in partnership with the family empowerment and partnership team, we launched or partnership academy. We cohosted learning while black at sfusd and soon, well be hiring another special assistant to the superintendent to continue building on the work of our lead, but i want to note under mr. Dickeys leadership, we went from a oneperson team to sevenperson team. We went have having no budget to a 1. 5 million budget, and we went from very scattered leadership across our schools so in terms in terms of African American families and students, to impacts in all schools and b. S. U. S. Black excellence, im going to read these out because we hold very dear. Black excellence. We honor and recognize the excellence and achievements of black and African American people around the world. High expectations. We hold High Expectations for our students as learners and our families as their childrens first teacher. We hold accountable all stakeholders that influence African American achievement, and thats throughout the disk. We review and analysis data. We look at the data and we use high quality information to adjustment our programs. Our African American students and families in the Broader Community have unique skills and expertise that benefit our communities and district as a whole, thus we must partner and collaborate with all stakeholders throughout our district and city as it takes a village to deliver a high quality educational experience to our African American students, and i dont want to forget to mention that we will remain student and family centered. One of our focuses was to provide accountability when it comes to students in the district. It was a Novel Concept in 2015 that twice a year, a group, a team would present to the board about the status of avenue fri american achievement. So as you look at Demographic Data for African American students, we continue to see a decline in African American student enrollment in our district. Right now, about 3 of students in our schools are African Americans, but that does not include students that are mixed or students that decline to state or not specified, so thats to say there are more students that identify than we currently count. Below that, you see the breakdown of current populatiopopulatio populations, which we highlight to see that African American students are in a monolith. As you look at our goal scorecard over the last five years, weve used our scorecard to consistently track or launch the same set of measures each year, our progress towards improving African American achievements where weve improved are number of African American students in student suspension, the disproportionality of special Education Placement particularly as it relates to being identified as emotionally disturbed, and also, the Graduation Rate has steadily risen over the last five years. We see theres a continuing and urgent need as it comes to addressing chronic absenteeism in our district, and making improvements in these areas. Just a note on those numbers is that at the back in 2015, we landed on third, eighth, and 11 grade for proxies on those scorecards, so if you see different numbers, it may be because its specific to these three grade levels. Im going to turn it now to linda jordan. Good evening, board and superintendent the various programs of the aaali team have provided support to students, Material Support for teachers, and emotional support for families. A few of the highlights that you see before you are 82 of the class of 2022 who participated in our black star rising 2018 Summer Program finished their freshman fall semester on track. Also, 77 of the class of 2018 graduated within four years, not five, not six. The impact of the work is grounded in the belief that solutions to academic achievement for African American students will come from those with direct contact our students and families occur. The data speaks to the analysis of achieving equitiable outcome and analysis. Question have narrowed we have narrowed the gap in Graduation Rates between African American students and other student population. This also speaks to the increased efforts by family, community groups, staff, teachers, and creating the necessary conditions for African American students to be prepared for their next step in life, work, or in any or all post secondary opportunities. Other highlights of the data is the number of teachers who engage in professional learning opportunity at their site that have increased student relationships and transformed students mindset. Our work is specifically at hand because of the multiple partners that have focused in on their specific area of expertise. For example, black star rising is supported by the human rights commission. They have been an instrumental partner in providing support for our students over the summer, and they now are building out yearround programming to support our students. Another example is 100 college prep, who provides Additional Support services to students at several of the high schools. Their programming includes workshops that offers programming and academic support to students. There are many other partners, and i would remiss to try to call them all, because i might leave one out, and i would not want to do that. But we have seen improvements in our programs, but we have more to do in provide equity education, graduating from high school, and be prepared for post secondary. I would now like to turn it over to anthony amar. Thank you, and good evening. To the left of this slide, you will see our programs, key partnerships and significant events that are leveraged to fulfill our goals to build trust with our families and prepare our students to succeed beyond their academic years. The programs we have aim to empower students and families, provide comprehensive wraparound support. Key representations believe it takes a village to achieve our goals and this allows us to ensure more resource and equitiable opportunities for African American students and families in our districts. Strategies under development include continuing our effort to provide culturally relevant instruction. Other partnerships we will deeper include but are not limited to, those listed. Finally, we will continue to support our signature programs, African American honor roll, and the College Signing day. At the end of the day, this work is about the people. We hold steadfast in our efforts to remain student and family centered and maintain the same expectation for our external and internal to San Francisco unified. A 9th grader from Mission High School skattated i get to learo me best. The late nights, the tears, the lies, the hurt will be worth it. These quotes represent the impact of programming on our student mindsets, and what happens when parents have the opportunity to voice their opinions for equity. One quote represents our effort to work hard in hand to track and implement strategies on behalf of African American students. We understand that those in school sites must be empowered to lead this critical work. So in the last couple slides here, i wanted to offer a reflection. Im just thinking about taking a more global perspective on the challenges we face in supporting African American students. So the first slide is likely now to our newer Board Members, but its our slide of system particular Board Members which we developed in 2016 with sfusd stakeholders and community stakeholders. These barriers we think reflect some of the larger trends within our system that create barriers to serving African American students, and they include quality teaching, so we identified that theres a need to ensure that theres a stable cadre of high quality teachers in our schools. We also identified School Choice, the idea that we are maintaining racial isolation in our stoochools with our School Choice system. Right now, tier one instruction is not ensuring grade Level Performance for our African American students. Disconnected services. So we need we need to best direct our families more high quality Wraparound Services to address their needs. And then, implicit bias to address Racial Disparities in special education and discipline. So again as we think about these larger issues, i continue to believe this aaali team is necessary for sfusd, and we have worked together a set of strategies and values to support our African American students, but this work to support our African American students is a collective list that will require the effort of every sippingle student and fay in our district. In summarizing some of my reflections over the last few years, i turned to a tool called the sixth circle framework. The framework underscores the fact that organizations function through elements that are reflected above the green line and below the green line. Above the green line are more of the technical systems that organizations use to address its most important priorities. Below the green line are elements that relate more closely to the culture of an organization. In reflecting on my time here at sfusd, the following that he see on the that you see on the slide are critical in moving arts system toward ones more beneficial for African American students. As we reflect on our structure, the way that our system organizes itself, im a little bit biased, but i believe its critical that we continue to be bold and maintain a multiyear commitment to the African American leadership. I believe really deeply in this team. I believe that the work we have done and the team will do is bold and unique. I believe its a necessary condition to maintain our institutional focus on African American students. I also believe that we have to establish a culture in which every school site has a strategic commitment to African Americans. We need to ensure that every school site in every department in sfusd has a defined focus on this work. In terms of the patterns that we need to reinforce throughout the district, i believe that our district works towards utilizing continuance improvements, the concepts that we plan our study are more critical. If we think about processes, how do we build consistency and efficiency in our work to support African American students . We need to have a shared lens for what we are looking for in our schools when it comes to effectively serve African American students. We ae started working we need more of this in pitch, and more shared responsibilities and expectations. Our work to address African American achievement has to be premised on meaningful relationships with african teachers, families, and students. Our identity as an organization will continue to influence how we do this work. Aaali has excellence in the lives of all African American students, and its true. It its observable for every African American students in the district if you look. We realize this through our values as an organization and through our discourse. And finally, we have to proactively build a presence in social media because without that, other activities will take hold. We need to be insistent about sharing the bright spots, what is working and what is changing so we can continue to blaze a path forward in this work. Its been an honor to lead a system centered on a more equitiable system for African American boys and girls in my hometown. Im very excited that sfusd will be bringing on a new person to this role to maintain this work and to support this team, and ive been very fortunate to work with the leaders ive been very fortunate to work with the leaders in this district and to serve a leader as skilled and handson as dr. Matthews and his team, so that being said, thank you. [applause] to close out our aaali presentation, our community has come together to say thank you to landon. We have a short presentation. It couldnt cover everything that you mean to us, everything you do to make sure black families thrive and work in sfusd, but here it is. We love you, and we appreciate it. [ ] hello. I went to Mission High School, class of 2016 from sfusd district, and i go to morehouse now, and im going to be a senior. I just want to say thank you for everything youve done, landon, for pushing me to succeed in everything that i do. [please stand by] hi, im vince matthews. I just want to say to landon, we will miss you. You are brilliant, youre talented, youre passionate, you are committed to the children and families. The children a unified will sorely miss you. I am glad and blessed that i got those two years with you. Thank you, london, i am going to miss you. Landon, thank you so much for all you have done. It has been a pleasure to work with you. Thank you for all you have done. Hey, landon. I just wanted to say thanks. Thank you for loving black students, thank you for loving black families, thank you for fighting so fiercely as you have time and time again. We will miss you. Love, peace, and light, landon. In these five short months, you have been an inspiration and encouragement. You have show me what it is to be a young, black leader. I will impart with you this. What do you say to the god of death . Not today. I am a post secondary manager at the africanamerican Achievement Initiative team. That is only because of you, landon. I dont want to cry, i will be a big girl today, and i just want to you to know that we couldnt have done all that we have done without your leadership. Please know that. Good luck to you. Hi, landon, it is any, your wife. And your partner. I have had a front row seat these past four and a half years as you have created and led this team. Your leadership really centres the students because they love you and believe in your excellence. They know that. Most importantly, you still create foundations so this work can continue. Congratulations on an incredible run. [laughter]. Thank you, all. I pride myself on knowing when things are going on, but i had no idea that was happening. Thank you very much, i really do deeply appreciate it. I have so much respect for all of you, and the tireless and selfless work that everyone in this room does. It is not just me, it really has taken a village, and i am so grateful to have had this experience and opportunity to work with you all. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] that was lovely. We have some speakers. Get ready for more love. Hopeful [calling names]. Two minutes each. We ran out of speaker cards, so i will let my daughter go. Go ahead. Hi, i am a student at the base school and i am [indiscernible] [indiscernible] the team, and having mr. Dickey as our leader has also inspired me to push through barriers in the system, and the team is definitely creating a sense of value and appreciation in a time where many times i was , and still am one of the very few black students in an allwhite class. Thank you, landon. [applause] i just want to say, i know there will never be a landon. I wish that when i was in sfusd that i had one, but more or less to the board, as you are looking for leadership, as you see my name pops up a lot because he has pushed me not to be silent, to have a sense of excellence in sfusd as an employee, as a parent, into not just strive for africanamerican students, was see the importance of joining across language, to put down barriers, to se